A Counterexample to the Distributed Operational Transform and a Corrected Algorithm for Point-to-point Communication
Gordon V. Cormack · 2002
The distributed operation transform (dOPT) is proposed by Ellis and Gibbs as a lock-free algorithm to ensure the consistency of concurrently updatable distributed objects. dOPT is shown by counterexample to be incorrect. A corrected algorithm is given for a restricted environment based on point-to-point communication. There appears to be no simple correction to dOPT for a general environment based on broadcast communication. Ke ywords: Distributed computing, distributed algorithm, concurrency control, causal ordering, groupware.